Mount Vernon Mayor, City Council Members At Odds Over Incident At City Hall

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A possible security breach at Mount Vernon City Hall has the mayor at war with some City Council members.

Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas changed the locks at City Hall after he said police found Council President Marcus Griffith and Council member Andre Wallace in the Planning Department around 9 p.m. Friday.

"Sneaking around in the dark of night with their shadowy dealings," Thomas told WCBS 880's Stephanie Colombini.

The mayor had just fired the city's planning commissioner after learning the department was at-risk of a federal shutdown for non-compliance with U.S. Housing and Urban Development, and said he was concerned the two men could have been looking for sensitive documents.

But Wallace said they were just retrieving the former commissioner's personal items for him. He added that the mayor knew they were in the building before police arrived, Colombini reported.

"We could have been shot by accident calling in a false report," Wallace said.

Police took statements from the men and no arrests were made.